Saturday, September 26, 2009

Cunjin Park











Click the pix for larger picture.
Today Brian and I went to Cunjin Park. This is the park that I have the pleasure of walking through in my daily commute to school. It's a wonderful oasis in the middle of a busy Chinese city. One of the great things about living in the tropics is the lushness of the parks. A guy was doing some tumbling and martial arts moves, and gave us a little show. We walked up to the school so Brian could see where I work, and we ran into a few students who were impressed with the handsome, towering, manly young man.
The bus ride home was more fun than usual since we had a Chinese Ricky Bobby doing his NASCAR thing with our bus. Pedal to the metal, constant horn, and lots of vehicle passing. He occasionally stopped for for passengers, but with great reluctance. I swear he had a wife in labor he was trying to get home to.
We are pondering where we want to go for the upcoming National Day holiday. We get a week off to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. Wahoo! Of course, Yali has to work this weekend, and lots of kids have school on Sunday, but it will still be a week off.
We are considering a return to Guangxi province and the Guilin area.


Saturday, September 19, 2009

Outwitting the Dream Police

Yay! I found a great service that allows me total internet access. Back to blogging here. I like this site better, so I will be using it. There are a few entries here from livejournal, so read that stuff first.
The tropical storm/wannabe typhoon ended up hitting us squarely, but with virtually no wind. Just lots of rain. School ran as usual. Now we are back to sweat inducing steamy weather.
This week began the Great Leap Forward To Be Able to Pronounce "R". It doesn't exist in the Cantonese language, so the students have varying degrees of ablility with this tricky sound. After showing them with scientific cartoonish drawings of a tongue pointing up, I've gotten aboout a 90% success rate at the basic "aaarh" sound. Just in time for "Talk like a Pirate Day"! This week I got them eased into it with the "air" sound. As in Mary and Karen flew to Paris with their parents, where they met their Aunt Clair at the airport and stared at an Arab eating a pear.
They also showed great musical talent singing "Country Roads", or at least the chorus part. I also gave them a lesson in the nuances of the word "dude".
The school likes me and I like it. The only problem is that there just isn't enough of me to meet the demands of 2000 kids. They all want my phone number, but I would never have a moments rest if they got hold of that. My little apartment at the school is great for showers, air conditioning and napping. I have internet and a kitchen too. I stay there one night every two weeks when I have an early class the next day, since the buses don't start early enough for me to make on time.
Tonight is go out with the Brits and Chinese for BBQ night. It's a great way to spend a steamy Saturday night.